AZA Client Wins Multimillion Arbitration Award for Breach of Contract   

DALLAS – An arbitration panel has awarded $3.4 million to MMWKM Advisors, which does business as Retirement Planners of America (RPOA), a Plano-based investment advisory firm, from former employee Joseph Dowdall, a Plano-based financial planner.   

The three-arbitrator panel for the American Arbitration Association found that Mr. Dowdall breached his contractual and fiduciary duties to RPOA when he took confidential information and accepted client relationships in violation of his contract when he left to go to a competitor. The panel denied Mr. Dowdall’s counterclaims and found that he destroyed texts and other evidence after he became aware of this litigation. 

RPOA was founded by Ken Moraif, who hosts a popular radio show on investing called “Money Matters with Ken Moraif” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The firm offers investment management, financial planning, investment strategies and other financial services. It filed a breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty arbitration claim against Mr. Dowdall.  

MMWKM was awarded $2.7 million in damages and attorneys’ fees, plus pre-judgment interest and arbitration fees. The case was in arbitration per the Investment Advisor Representation Agreement the parties signed in 2013.  

AZA partner Ryan Hackney, lead lawyer in the case, said the firm won a related case for the same client last year for about $1.6 million. “We are pleased to help Mr. Moraif and his company recover from a former associate willing to steal to get a leg up in business,” said Mr. Hackney. He tried the case with former AZA lawyer Patrick Yarborough, now at Foster Yarborough.  

The case before the American Arbitration Association is MMWKM Advisors, LLC, and Kenneth Moraif v Joseph Dowdall, case number 01-21-0003-5506. It was filed in Collin County.   

AZA, or Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, is a Houston-based law firm that is home to true courtroom lawyers with a formidable track record in complex commercial litigation, including energy, healthcare, intellectual property, and business dispute cases. AZA is recognized by Chambers USA 2022 as among the best in Texas in commercial law and intellectual property; has been listed by U.S. News – Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms for 11 years running; has been named Litigation Department of the Year by Texas Lawyer three times, including for 2021; and was previously dubbed a Texas Powerhouse law firm by Law360.